Is Viagra really safe to buy online? The truth.
Viagra, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s name for a drug called sildenafil citrate, is the most sought after medication on the Internet. You can save a lot of money buying Viagra online, but you can also risk getting a fake or tainted product that endangers your health. Here’s how to stay safe and save money. (more…)
FDA Seized Counterfeit Cialis at International Mail Facility
The FDA issued a warning about counterfeit Cialis, an erectile dysfunction (ED) medication, being sold through the mail, which probably means it was purchased from a rogue online pharmacy. The fake Cialis is some whacky combination of Cialis’s active ingredient, tadalafil, and the active ingredient in Pfizer’s Viagra, called sildenafil. Apparently, the FDA seized the counterfeit product before it reached a consumer in the U.S. by mail.
Fortunately, over 99% of safe, personally imported prescription drugs are not seized at international mail facilities. Still, I’ve given the FDA considerable grief about seizing safe medications, which they usually deem “misbranded” or “unapproved” for intellectual property or labeling reasons – but in this case FDA protected someone from a bad drug and that’s cool.
According to Reuters, FDA “cautioned against purchasing prescription medicines online, noting that some websites may be selling unsafe products.” The FDA also said that there is no indication that the “legitimate supply chain” – meaning the U.S. domestic supply chain – is at risk and that licensed U.S. pharmacies are safe. That’s probably true but there’s no reason to believe that the legitimate supply chains in other countries aren’t safe either. In other words, foreign online pharmacies verified by PharmacyChecker.com continue to sell real Cialis, the one marketed by Eli Lilly, for a lot less than they do here. The lowest cost Cialis (10mg) is $14.25 at a PharmacyChecker.com-approved international online pharmacy. That compares with a whopping $44.92 per pill at a one of the lower cost VIPPS-approved online pharmacies (VIPPS is the online pharmacy verification program of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy).
The FDA recommends that consumers do not take Cialis supplied in bottles matching one or more of the following descriptions:
I don’t agree with one of these – the bolded one – and here’s why: safe and real Cialis, or other genuine medications, ordered from online pharmacies won’t necessarily have an NDC number on it. In fact, if you were to travel to another country and purchase meds, real prescription drugs, in a brick-and-mortar pharmacy, they would not have an NDC number. That’s because NDC is unique to drugs packaged for sale in American pharmacies. Other countries use different labeling systems; for example, Canada’s version of NDC is called DIN (drug identification number).
One last important note: the truth is that many people want to get ED meds online, whether it’s Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra, without a prescription. PharmacyChecker.com strongly recommends that you don’t do that. The studies show that online pharmacies that don’t require a valid prescription are more likely to sell fake or otherwise bad medication, especially bogus ED meds!
In speeches and writings about online pharmacies, many experts and professionals in the pharmaceutical and U.S. pharmacy industries cite data from the World Health Organization (WHO) claiming that 50% of drugs sold on the Internet are counterfeit. A recent example is an article published last week in US Pharmacist. This statistic is often offered as “evidence” that all online pharmacies, particularly outside the U.S., are dangerous. However, the WHO’s information is often misused and the statistic’s factual basis is questionable.
The actual WHO statistic is that in “50% of cases, medicines purchased over the Internet from illegal sites that conceal their physical address have been found to be counterfeit.” WHO goes onto qualify this statement, noting that “Some Internet pharmacies are legal operations, established to offer clients convenience and savings. They deliver medications from government-licensed facilities and sell only on the basis of a prescription.” This is a critical point which we have made many times on this blog, but is commonly omitted by those whose work is backed by the pharmaceutical and U.S. pharmacy industries. (more…)
